Date: Tue, 5 Sep 1995 08:32:05 -0400
From: David Muschell
Subject: Re: secret codes
Terry Lynn Irons recently wrote:
>If we don't understand uuencoding and the other things that new technologies
>allow us to do, do we really have any right to say that the NEH should
>give us money?
>
>Increasingingly I find technology being used by humans who are not in control
>of it and it scares me. I don't know why, but I still think the people
>using the machines should be smarter than the machines.
That's quite a leap in logic. Since when is computer programming part of
the humanities? Must we pass a computer skills test as part of the grant
application process now? My instincts tell me that technology has always
been used by humans who are not in control of it: from the bow and arrow
to the musket to the "smart bomb." I have some idea how the air
conditioner cooling my office works, but I couldn't take it apart and fix
it if it broke. It has only been a few years since I was dragged into
using the device that is sending this mail, and I resist getting too deeply
caught in its web (world-wide or otherwise). I don't necessarily believe I
have to be "machine smart" to be an effective teacher or to make fair use
of a computer. I'm certainly no language chauvinist when it comes to a
computer code being sent to me as a message, but I do believe in an
audience-centered communication process and that one missed the mark for
me.
David